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RevWhatever's Squire Guide
Okay. This was all written when DD was new, this wiki had fewer than 100 pages on it, and the level cap was 70. For soloing your way to fame, it still applies, even though there are better ways to do it. Now that I'm back, it's time to work on updating this with all the information you need. Introduction So... You've decided to become a Squire. Was it the hope of mowing through wave after wave of enemies, fearlessly storming in with sword swinging? Was it knowing that your stalwart defenses would protect your allies and the Eternia crystal from even the strongest of ogres? Or was it the heart boxers? Regardless of your reasons, I'll be here to help you in building the best Squire you can. You won't find a massive breakdown of Squire towers here, nor will you find gear lists. No. What you'll find here are recommendations and advice. You'll find some builds, and how to effectively level yourself, while making all the mana you'll need to level your gear. You'll find some strategies on the levels I use to level my Squire. You won't find a comprehensive level by level and wave by wave playbook to clear the game. No. All of that is detailed elsewhere. You want raw data? Check somewhere else. Now that I've got that out of the way, let's begin. Levels 1 - 70 The Deeper Well Your first Squire! Fresh out of the box! Here we go, entering the Deeper Well, excitement mounting as you collect your 160 Mana, and prepare to build your defenses. Let's see what this stoic defender can bring to the party.... A Spike Blockade. Nothing more than a glorified wall. Well, every Squire has to start somewhere, and this is where we begin. Before we can become a powerhouse of defense and destruction, we need to gain a few levels. At least you'll only be using the Spike Blockade for one level, being this first run through the Deeper Well. Go ahead and set up the Cade on the lower stairs. Doesn't matter where on the stairs, so long as it blocks the path from portal to crystal. The Cade is a purely passive defense. Mobs attack it, they get hurt. Not hurt much, mind you, but the Cade has enough hit points to be able to take a bit of punishment. Wave 4 brings out orcs on the upper level. If you've gained a few levels, you may have your Bouncers by now. If so, place one on each path next to the water wheels nearest the crystal. Assuming you put your Cades at the bottom of the lower stairs, the orcs should head to the crystal, only to be stopped by the Bumpers. If not, well... Feel free to sell the Cades and replace with Bumpers at anytime, really. If you haven't gained enough levels to unlock the Bumpers, just put Cades up in the path of the orcs, instead. Speaking of gaining levels, we should have a couple by now! What to do with those shiny new skill points? Well, assuming you aren't just power-leveling your way to 70 using a higher level toon, we'll use the Squire as your leveling and farming toon. For this, you want to stick with a Tower build. This is really where the Squire shines. We will first focus on Tower Range and Tower Health. Go ahead and split your points evenly between those two stats. Build them like that until you hit about 15 - 20 in each, and then choose one: Tower Damage, or Tower Attack Rate. We don't want to pump that too much, yet, but even a few points in a stat will give a significant boost at lower levels. Diminishing returns, though, says that you don't want to max stats one at a time. At this point, feel free to either (A) continue running the Deeper Well for crappy gear until you have a full set of Leather, thus netting a set bonus to bolster your stats cheap or (B) continue on with the campaign. You'll want to continue on eventually, but having a full set of gear and a weapon won't hurt. Just don't bother upgrading anything you find yet. Replace it with better gear at every opportunity. Alchemy Laboratory You can get a halfway decent weapon from this stage that you can use at level 12. You don't have Blenders at that point, but you don't really need them, and I'd rather you not build up a dependence on putting up Blenders everywhere. Believe me, they have their time and place, but your team mates would appreciate it if you weren't burning through the DU with Blenders when a Bumper would suffice. On each choke point, we are going to put a Bumper. Those points would be: Northeast and northwest stairs next to the large machine, right at the top of the stairs. Make sure you are not able to walk around it. When setting up your defenses, if you can walk around it, you're doing it wrong. South openings, in the middle of the short corridors. Don't put them at the ends, because if you do, archers may stop out of reach of the Bumpers and just shoot them. Also, orcs like to stop just outside of Bumper range and attack them. Watch the map for that. Start the wave. You won't see a lot of action to the south, so just work on holding back the north end. As soon as you have the mana, reinforce the north Bumpers with a few Bows. You can also put one Bow each on the south Bumpers, placing them on the raised platform in the middle of the south approaches. You can finish this level on Easy with just the four Bumpers, and four Bows. Anything more than that as a defensive line is just overkill. By the last wave, you'll want to spend any remaining DU on placing Bows to cover the center area. Don't just aim them at the crystal, though. Cover as much ground as you can. When the Demon Lord appears, you want the Bows to take the heat, leaving your defensive line alone to defend from the mobs, and leaving you alone to kill the four pylons and the Demon itself. Oh, yeah. Weak point: Target the pylons. When the fourth one goes down, they'll shock the Demon Lord, dealing significant damage and stunning it. Clear this stage, and you've received your first special weapon. Too bad it sucks. Well, you're just using this until you can get something better. Feel free to farm this level until you get one with halfway decent attack power. We don't care about any other stat at this time (from gear!). This level will become your favorite place until level 15 or 16. If you want, once you hit level 15, you can start replacing the Bumpers with Blenders. Just know that it gets real annoying on Multiplayer when you run with a Squire who insists that the solution to everything is "add another Blender." At 8DU each, you'll run your team out of DU. On solo play, though, go nuts with them. Just make sure you don't get too dependent on them. Seriously. I can't stress that enough. The Deeper Well (Insane) Okay. All towers unlocked. Too bad we still aren't going to use two of them. Go to the Deeper Well Insane. Collect the mana. Place a Bow on the rail to the left of the upper set of stairs on the top approach, so that it can shoot down the lane the orcs approach on, and can shoot down the stairs to reach the narrow lane everyone else approaches on. Next, place a Bumper in the middle of those stairs. Now make the other side match with the Bumpers. Just to reiterate: Upper stairs. Closest to crystal (but not the stairs RIGHT NEXT to the crystal). I'm talking about the narrow set on the main approaches. That will be your defensive line. Start the wave. Or run out of time. Oh, yeah! Insane adds a timer to each level! Have fun with that, my slow moving, pantsless Squire. You'll see more action on the approach to the left, so focus there. Or don't. Really, with all your points so far in Tower Range and Tower Attack Rate, you should find you don't have too many problems clearing this wave. Now you have more mana. Wave two: Place another Bow to match the first, but this time on the right approach. Now you'll also set up Bumpers next to the water wheels on the approaches the orcs will use, flanking your stairs Bumpers. You should now have a Bumper on each approach, and a Bow to cover two Bumpers. You've only used 28 of 60 DU, so feel free to bolster your defenses with some extra Bows, or Cannons, or even replace a Bumper with a Blender. Really, though, the minimal set up I just gave should hold with some help, and will eventually hold with no additional input. Just remain vigilant on repairs while you are still at low levels. We will use this stage to reach level 30. Keep pumping tower stats. You will live and die based on your towers and their ability to hold back anything that comes your way. When picking up gear, you want to start looking for items the improve Hero Speed and Hero Cast Time. This will help you in running around the map to get where help is needed, and enable you to repair faster. Still, though, no points go in Hero stats. I kept my Hero stats at zero until I was forced to spend points in them at level 67. You still aren't going to find awesome gear here, but feel free to keep anything that appears green on your map, and is indicated as an upgrade. Still no investing in gear, though. Until you hit level 70, or start doing challenges, every piece of gear you get will be thrown out pretty soon. Again: Don't invest in gear. Don't invest in gear. Don't invest in gear. Got it, nigger? Your final equipment will be some named weapon from a challenge and a set of Pristine gear. Legendary and Godly Pristine gear, at that. Do you have those yet? No? Wait... What was that? Deeper Well Insane doesn't drop named weapons and Pristine gear? Well, then, don't invest in gear. That said, look for speed upgrades. You'll thank me later. The Throne Room Okay. The Throne Room. When it comes to boss levels, this is the one I keep hearing complaints about. It's not so bad, really. Especially not if you followed my advice, and went ahead and found some speed gear. By now, your towers should have some good range to them, and at least a bit of a boost in damage and attack rate. Now for the layout. I'm trying to recreate this from memory, so don't expect a wave by wave summary. First off, and most important, collect the mana, and build some Bumpers. You want 4 Bumpers, placed around the alcoves with the crystals, in a fashion as to completely enclose them. You also want to leave as much open space as possible inside, without creating gaps that mobs on the stairs can slip through. This is important, as you'll be using all the available space inside that area. Also, the stairs that flank the crystals? Outside of the area defined by the Bumpers. Can't have any mobs just waltzing right in now, can we? Next order of business is to place Bows everywhere you can inside. You should have a feel for space management with your Bows by now, so go nuts. Make sure you have some pointing at the crystals, and all of them facing through the area we are building in. For example, if the Bow is next to the Bumpers on the left side of your defenses, you want it pointed to the right. If it is near the crystal on the top, face it towards the bottom crystal. This ensures that you have the entire area inside covered from Wyverns. So, yeah. Go nuts with the Bows. Just make sure you save enough DU to build 4 Cannons at the last wave. Running each wave is easy. You have an area around the crystals that is essentially defined like an oval. Run circles around that. Kill everything that gets in the way. Pay special attention to archers, mages and assassins. The assassins will leap at you and wreck you, while the ranged units like to stop on the stairs and shoot at your crystals and defenses. With a high enough speed, and "high enough" really isn't even that high, you should be able to keep most mobs away. If you need to stop and heal, jump inside the oval, heal up, repair and upgrade if needed, build another Bow or three, and get back outside. Don't overbuild, though! Keep the DU for 4 Cannons (yes, I've stated that twice, now. It's important.). Final Wave and Boss: Make sure that, as the final wave finishes up, you have a minimum of 400 mana and enough DU for 4 Cannons. Go to the left side of the map, about halfway from the crystals to the spawn point. Now build a line of 4 Cannons, each aiming at the spawn point and away from the crystals. This way, when the Goblin Mecha shows up, you greet it with a face full of bowling balls. Concentrate on killing that guy. Between you manually attacking and the 4 Cannons, it's a cinch. Seriously, folks. This level is cake. Too bad the weapon you get from the Goblin Mecha is also rubbish. Congratulations. You just killed the second boss. We just want to get through here to get to the Ramparts. I mean, once you hit the Ramps, you're golden. Levels. Loot. The ability to totally AFK your defenses. You name it, the Ramps will make it happen. So, what are you waiting for? Get to the next section, already! The Ramparts (Hard) If you can't stand this level, then I feel bad for you, as my advice is to use this level to reach level 70. This level is good xp and good mana, for the time you'll spend here. Now for the setup. Initial mana: You have 500 to spend. You should also have decent tower stats by now. So, we have four approaches, defended at three choke points. We will use the bridge on the east side, the narrow path between on the west side, and the path next to the building that you can climb on to the north. We also need to set up some wyvern defenses, which I'll run through first. By the lone crystal in the center, you will place a Bow to the north of it, on one of the merlons right next to the Forge, facing towards the crystal. Now head to the two crystals in the north east. As far to the north east as possible, you will put another Bow, facing towards a point between the two crystals, so that it covers them both. Now for the physical barriers. On the east bridge, we are going to put two Bumpers there, not quite in the center of the bridge, closer to the crystals than the spawn point. On the west approach, in the narrow path south of the building you can climb on, we will place a Blender. This goes right at the bottom of the stairs leading into this little "valley," in the center. You will still be able to walk around it, so we know that mobs can walk around it, too. This will be fixed soon. Now head to the north choke. You will see the sloped roof on the west, and more merlons, some with torches, on the east. We want to line up two Bumpers with the torch bearing merlon at the midpoint of this path. Now, head to the blender and start the wave. We are going to help this path out for a minute. As soon as the mobs reach the Blender, charge in and start mowing through them, watching your health. The goal is to accumulate 200 mana. Once you've done that, retreat behind the Blender, and use that to protect you from arrows as you put two Cannons at the top of the stairs above the Cannon, facing down into this valley. The Cannon's rate of fire will create an effective barrier in this valley. Now collect 320 mana for four bows. Head to the north defenses. Place a Bow on the merlon just south of the one with the torch that we used as reference earlier. Aim it north west, so that the range covers the Bumpers completely. Now, continue building Bows lined up next to the first behind the Bumpers. Two go on the path, and the last one on the roof of the building. Lastly, we need 360 mana for the east choke. Build two Bows behind the two Bumpers at the base of the stairs. Build two Cannons at the top of the stairs. It all faces south. While we are here, build another Bow in the plaza with the two crystals. This Bow goes in the south east corner of the plaza, facing east. All defenses are now covered. Focus on upgrades and repairs for the rest of the round. Finished with the stage, yet? Restart. Finished it again? Restart. Finished wi- Restart. See how this works? You'll be gaining levels fast. Pure Tower Squire means we want to put all points into the four Tower stats. That way, you won't need to waste anything on repairs or upgrades. More mana for you. You'll still have 19 points left over. Feel free to dump those anywhere. Congratulations. You now have a level 70 Squire. From this point, you can level anything fast, just by switching to a different hero after getting the defenses set up. Then just go to sleep, or something. Hit G every so often to start the next wave. Seriously. This setup requires no additional input to clear, and will net mana and xp like mad. Gearing Up Here's the long and short of it: If it isn't Mythical, it isn't worth it. Don't farm gear, or upgrade anything before this point. Also, avoid dumping anything on AFK shops unless it is Mythical gear. You'll find shops selling Godly. Avoid that. It's junk. Synergy with Other Classes Other Squires/Countess This one is easy. You know what you are capable of, so you know what your counterpart is capable of. You both build the same towers, use the same weapons, et cetera. The benefit of multiple Squires in the party is in your specializations. If you are specced Tower (which you are - all Squires are Tower), a Hero Squire (?!?) or Countess can dish out the damage you lack. Actually, thinking about it, a well equipped Squire can dish out plenty of damage, regardless of spec. Take what you do best. Multiply that by a factor of (number of Squires + Countesses) x (awesome). I love Squires. Period. Apprentice/Adept This guy works great with Squires. Look at your towers. High DU costs for what they do. Yet, you have all the HP. All of it. Apprentices? Their equivalent towers take less DU to build, have less HP, but are capable of cranking out a bit more damage. Nothing says "favorite teammates" like a line of Magic Missiles behind a bumper or some spikes. Although, with that being said, I'm not a fan of parties with mages. It all comes down to who wants to build the towers, and I'm partial to my bows and bowlers. Monk/Whatever The Monk will most likely take a support role in a party with Squires. Then again, that is what they were built for. Ensnare Auras give your bows more time to kill the enemies. Strength Drains keep your spikes up longer. Healing Auras keep you in the action longer without needing to stop and heal. By the time you NEED a party, your Monk should know what is expected. Ensnare and Strength Drain in front of your lines? You betcha~! Huntress/Whatever Barbarian Simple enough. This guy does the DPS so you don't have to. 'Nuff said. Series EV Summoner ﻿ Category:Guides Category:Squire guides